Matthew Murdock (Earth-616)
| CurrentAlias = Daredevil | Aliases = Jack Batlin, Kingpin, Kingpin of Crime, Laurent LeVasseur, Scarlet Swashbuckler, Nameless One, Kingpin of Hell's Kitchen, the Man Without Fear, the Guardian Devil, DD, Red Man, Hornhead, Horn-Head Red, formerly Captain Universe, Scarlet Avenger, Mike Murdock, Michael "Mike" Murdock, Death's Head, Jester, Thor, Frog-Man, Ikari, Shades, Salvatore "Side Pockets" Buchetto, "the Devil", Gary | EditorialNames = Daredevil: The Man Without Fear | Identity = Secret | Affiliation = , Partner of Blindspot, New York City District Attorney's Office; formerly Kirsten McDuffie, , , , , leader of the ; former partner of Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff); (Attorney) | Relatives = Jonathan "Battling Jack" Murdock (father, deceased); Maggie Murdock (mother); Milla Donovan (ex-wife); | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = Hell's Kitchen, New York City, New York; formerly Matt Murdock's Apartment, Nelson and Murdock Law Office, New York, Shadowland, San Francisco, California | Gender = Male | Height = 5'11" | Weight = 185 lbs | Eyes = Blue | Hair = Red | UnusualFeatures = Blind | CharRef = | Citizenship = American | MaritalStatus = Divorced | Occupation = Adventurer, vigilante, Attorney at Law; former leader of the Hand, short order cook | Education = J.D. in law at Columbia University, Law School at Harvard; self-taught in mechanical engineering | Origin = Human Mutate | PlaceOfBirth = Hell's Kitchen, New York City, New York | Creators = Stan Lee; Bill Everett | First = Daredevil #1 | Quotation = As Daredevil, I get to save the world. As a lawyer... maybe I can fix it. I need them both. That's what I realized. The warrior and the lawyer. It doesn't work if I only have one. | Speaker = Matt Murdock | QuoteSource = Daredevil Vol 5 21 | HistoryText = ' See also: Expanded History ' Early Years Daredevil's life is a mix of joy and tragedy. The story of Matt Murdock began with his father. Jonathan "Battling Jack" Murdock raised his son alone, claiming Matt's mother had died. Jack wanted his son to be more successful than him. He impressed upon Matt the need to constantly study instead of playing sports with other kids. Jack hoped that Matt would become a doctor or a lawyer instead of an "uneducated pug" like himself. This led the neighborhood kids to bully the "cowardly" Matt as "Daredevil." Matt took out his frustrations by secretly training in his father's gym. One day, Matt saw a blind man walking towards an oncoming truck. Matt pushed the man out of the way. The truck crashed and a radioactive isotope spilled out, striking Matt across the face and blinding him. While recovering in the hospital, Matt discovered his hearing, smell, taste, and touch were amplified to superhuman degrees. He also developed a "radar sense" that formed a mental picture of his surroundings. During his time in the hospital, Matt was visited by a nun wearing a gold cross. Long thought dead, Matt would one day find his mother, "Maggie," was living as a nun. Matt wouldn't know who this woman was for many years. A few months later, Matt received training from the ninja master Stick. From Stick, Matt learned how to control his new abilities and honed his skills in acrobatics and martial arts. Meanwhile, Jack Murdock was desperate to fight. He reluctantly joined with a crooked fight promoter known as the "Fixer." The Fixer set up Jack to be a heavyweight contender, just to have him take a dive. Jack refused and won his fight. Later that night, Jack Murdock was shot dead by the Fixer and his men. The now orphaned Matt searched for his father's killers. He finally found the Fixer's gang and punished them severely. He chased down and confronted the Fixer, who pulled a gun on Matt. Before he could fire it, the Fixer suffered heart attack and died. Matt tracked down Angelo, the last man remaining responsible for his father's death. He found him at a brothel. Matt confronted him but was attacked by the women who worked there. In the melee, Matt knocked one of the women out of the window and thought she was dead (she would return as Typhoid Mary). He ran away in horror over what he had done. He went searching for Stick, but Stick had abandoned him because of his actions. Columbia University Matt continued to study and entered Columbia Law School. At Columbia, Matt met and fell in love with Elektra Natchios. It was a first love for both of them. When Elektra's father was accidentally killed by police, she retreated from the world and Matt. Nelson and Murdock Matt earned his law degree and landed a job at a major law firm. He returned to Hell's Kitchen and to his father's old gym. There he met a young girl staying there named Mickey. They got close to each other and he trained her. He also ran into Foggy Nelson while he was there. He helped him with some of his cases. Meanwhile, Mickey ended up being kidnapped by people working for the Kingpin. Matt tracked them down and rescued Mickey. Because of that he missed an appointment for work and was fired. Matt opened a practice, Nelson and Murdock, with Franklin "Foggy" Nelson. Karen Page was hired by Foggy as their secretary. Karen was attracted to Matt, and found it a pity that such a wonderful, handsome man could be so handicapped. Matt made a yellow and black costume out of his father's old boxing robes and continued to fight crime as Daredevil. Daredevil Though some of his early enemies were considered laughable like (Matador, Stilt Man, and Leap Frog), Daredevil gathered an impressive and dangerous rogues gallery. Electro was the first costumed villain Daredevil faced. Also, in one of his first encounters, he clashed with his long-time nemesis the Owl. In his first team-up with another superhero, he assisted Spider-Man in defeating the Circus of Crime. His next opponent, the Purple Man was a spy for a foreign country. When he was accidentally doused with experimental chemicals, they turned his skin purple and gave him the power to control people's minds. His power wasn't very effective against Daredevil since it worked best when people could see him. Mister Fear seemed like a natural enemy for a "Man Without Fear". He was a wax museum curator obsessed with bringing his statues to life. Instead, he discovered a gas that filled people with terror. He used this gas as Mister Fear to commit daring crimes. He also faced the Sub-Mariner during his early days as a hero. Even though he could not defeat the Atlantean, Daredevil refused to give up, which greatly impressed Namor. Karen told Matt about Dr. Van Eyck, a doctor from Boston who might be able to restore Matt's lost eyesight. But Matt refused, which angered her and she called him a coward. A client Klaus Kruger who is the Duke of Lichtenbad told them about Van Eych's treatment for the blind, Klaus verifies the claims, and Matt asks to go along because he senses that Klaus is lying about something. Back in New York City, Karen received a memo from Matt explaining that the surgery wasn't done, leaving Foggy to jealously assume that Matt chickened out at the last moment. He battled such villains as the Organizer and the Ani-Men. He traveled to the Savage Land and teamed up with Ka-Zar. Together they battled the Plunderer. He went up against villain such as Ox, the Masked Marauder, Gladiator, Owl, Tri-Man and Plunderer returned. He went up against Stilt-Man again. He finally took down the Masked Marauder. He went up against the Queega. Deciding to tell Karen that he was really Daredevil, Matt's plans got thrown out of whack when the Nelson & Murdock law office was attacked by the Masked Marauder's gang who beat up Foggy and kidnapped Karen to draw out Daredevil who they suspected to be Matt Murdock. Learning of Karen's kidnapping, Matt went to the location where Karen was being held hostage, and pretended to be a blind Matt pretending to be Daredevil coming to misguidedly save Karen. Getting captured as part of his plan, Daredevil freed himself when his captors were not looking and easily defeated them. After Karen was freed and Daredevil turned in the crooks, Matt decided not to tell Karen his true secret fearing the danger it may bring her someday. He went up against Cobra and Mister Hyde, battling the duo throughout New York. But finally defeats them. His rogue gallery increased battling the Beetle the Trapster, which led to his confrontation with Doctor Doom. Jester He soon fought the Jester who was more dangerous then he appeared. Karen decided that she could not take working at Nelson and Murdock anymore and decided to leave since she and Matt could not reconcile how they felt for each other. Matt had an opportunity to make her stay but he pushed her away not wanting to risk her life because he's really Daredevil. Not wanting to take out his emotions on somebody else, Daredevil went on the trail of the Jester in hopes of capturing the criminal. However, while out on patrol, he overheard a radio report of a crook who stole a bag full of Radium. Finding the crook and stopping him, the Radium had a weird effect on Daredevil, causing him to go berserk. Traveling to Madison Square Garden he found that Captain America was having a charity fight with people wanting to step in the ring with him. Daredevil, in a peaked frenzy then attacked the Star-Spangled Avenger, however during the fight the effect of the Radium wore off and Daredevil retreated quickly. He found the Jester and finally took him down. A new threat soon arose in Hell's Kitchen: Biggie Benson. Foggy Running for D.A. As Foggy entered the final race for the District Attorney's office, Karen returned because she could not stay away from Matt and the two rekindled their romance. During the election race, Daredevil learned that Stilt-Man had been hired to make an attempt on Foggy's life, and so battled him as Daredevil. Although Stilt-Man managed to escape, Daredevil prevented him from bringing harm to Foggy. Soon afterwards, Foggy was elected D.A., leaving Matt to wonder what to do with his law career. Thinking of Quitting Matt decided that he was sick of being Daredevil and decided to quit his costumed adventuring because it cost him his best friend and the girl that he loved. However, this was easier said than done as Daredevil was attacked by a robot created by Starr Saxon and hired out by Biggie Benson. He battled Saxon many times. He later impersonated Mister Fear. Fantastic Four In his civilian identity, Murdock was very successful as a lawyer. Amongst his more prominent clients were the Fantastic Four, whom he also aided as Daredevil in their fight against Doctor Doom when they temporarily lost their powers. He was also present at the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm, both as Matt Murdock and Daredevil. Mike Murdock A letter from Spider-Man unintentionally exposed Daredevil's secret identity, compelling him to adopt a new identity as his twin brother Mike Murdock, to protect his secret identity. He would often pretend to be "Mike" to act like the confident, cocky Daredevil for his friends. "Mike" later died in a fight, allowing Matt to appear as the "new" Daredevil, allegedly Mike Murdock's chosen successor. Black Widow Murdock moved to San Francisco with Natasha Romanova, the Black Widow. Although their relationship later ended, they remained friends. But sometimes Natasha wished they were more. While living in San Francisco, Matt worked for another law firm. Storefront Legal Clinic He left when he realized his bosses were more concerned with their careers than with their clients and returned to New York where he opened the "Storefront Legal Clinic" that provided legal services to poor people with Foggy Nelson who had lost his reelection as district attorney to Blake Tower. The Storefront was financed by the father of Matt's girlfriend Heather Glenn, Maxwell Glenn, who soon became a subject of investigation himself by Daredevil. He stopped a plot by the Jester who used fake television transmissions to plunge New York into chaos and teamed up with the Ghost Rider to rescue Karen Page who had been kidnapped by a new Death's Head. Elektra Matt was reunited with Elektra under the worst circumstances. After college, Elektra had become an assassin. She had trained with an evil ninja cult called the Hand. Although she left the Hand, she had become cold and violent. Elektra was killed by Bullseye, the world's deadliest assassin. Fortunately, ninja magic and Murdock's love brought her back to life and "cleansed her spirit". She moved to a remote mountain retreat to live with the Chaste, the Hand's heroic counterpart. Heather Glenn After Elektra's death, Matt proposed to Heather. He then went to work proving Glenn Industries' board of directors were involved in illegal dealings. He found enough proof to ruin the company, and leave Heather with no choice but to marry him. Foggy saw that what Matt was doing was wrong. With the Black Widow's help, he broke up Matt and Heather. Years later, a drunken Heather called Matt for help. When he learned she was lying, he angrily left and ignored her. Days later, she hung herself. Born Again Karen pursued an acting career in L.A., but ended up a porn star hooked on heroin. She sold out Daredevil's secret identity; information that eventually reached the Kingpin, Wilson Fisk. It was Fisk who systematically destroyed every piece of Matt Murdock's life; who was indirectly responsible for the deaths of Elektra and Jack Murdock; who knew Murdock is Daredevil, but never told anyone, just to play power games with the hero. Matt took Karen back and they built a life together. Typhoid Mary Typhoid Mary was the living embodiment of the Madonna/whore complex. Mary was a sweet but frightened woman who had been a successful actress. Typhoid was a trashy, cruel killer with telekinetic and pyrokinetic powers. The Kingpin hired her to make Matt Murdock fall in love with her, and then drive him crazy. Typhoid Mary succeeded in getting Matt to cheat on Karen Page and nearly beat him to death. Death of Glorianna O'Breen Glorianna O'Breen was an Irish photojournalist who met Matt when he fought an IRA terrorist. But Matt's descent into poverty and madness, brought about by the Kingpin, pushed her away. She later moved in with Foggy Nelson. Years later, Glorianna was killed by Victor "Kruel" Krueller, a madman trying to remember his past by beating witnesses to his attempted murder. Identity Crisis Matt's secret identity was threatened by a New York tabloid. Though he protected himself, he still faked his death. Even Foggy and Karen were fooled. Matt now lived as a street hustler named Jack Batlin. He kept fighting crime as Daredevil, this time with an armored costume and a meaner attitude. This led to an identity crisis, although he eventually overcame this and cleared up rumors of his identity, subsequently beginning work at a law firm run by Nelson's estranged mother. Guardian Devil Mysterio was one of Spider-Man's most persistent enemies. But when he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer, he conceived an elaborate "final performance". Although he initially planned to target Spider-Man, when he read reports about the new wall-crawler, he dismissed Spider-Man as a target, seeing no point in driving a 'clone' insane. Recalling a prior confrontation with Daredevil, he decided to turn his attention to Murdock after paying the Kingpin for information, seeing in Daredevil a kindred spirit as both were 'second stringers' with little reputation outside their homes. With Fisk's information, Mysterio devised an elaborate plot to pretend that the Second Coming was taking place, leaving Daredevil in the custody of an infant who had been reportedly identified as both the new Christ and the Antichrist, Daredevil also being tricked into coming in contact with an associate-suggestive toxin that would make him violent if anyone suggested that the child was innocent, the toxin being both odorless and tasteless so Daredevil could not tell he was drugged. At the same time, Foggy Nelson was framed for murder and Karen Page was tricked into believing that she had AIDS due to her old porn star career. Despite having been pushed to breaking point, with Doctor Strange's help, the toxin was removed from his system, with Strange helping to confirm that the tales of the child as the second coming were a trick. Although Matt was unable to save the child from being abducted by Bullseye, with his old foe also killing Karen in the process, he was able to track down his nemesis and learn of Mysterio's role in events. Although Mysterio taunted Matt with the possibility of killing him, Murdock overcame Mysterio's traps and illusions, bluntly informing the villain that his entire plot was nothing more than B-movie cliches and old tricks. With nothing left to live for, Beck committed suicide. Although still shaken by Karen's death, a conversation with Spider-Man helped Matt see that the baby he had saved represented something positive that had come from this whole mess, inspiring him to use Karen's life insurance- which she had left him in her will while asking him to use it on something that would benefit him rather than give it to charity- to restart Nelson & Murdock. Echo Maya Lopez was born deaf. She also had the gift to recreate any physical motion she sees. The Kingpin used her in another plot to destroy Matt Murdock. First, he arranged Matt to meet her, knowing Matt was lonely after the recent death of Karen Page. Then he tricked Maya into thinking Daredevil killed her father. Maya created the identity of Echo and fought Daredevil. She didn't know he was Matt and he didn't know why she now hated him. Matt soon explained himself and Maya attacked the Kingpin. She left him blinded for many months. Identity Revealed Murdock was outed by the press as Daredevil. He publicly denied this and sued the paper. Getting A Wife The latest woman in Matt's life was Milla Donovan. Like Matt, Donovan was blind. Matt saved her life and a year later they were married. Milla eventually learned their marriage may have be part of Matt's mental breakdown. She filed for an annulment. eventual Breakdown Murdock continued to fight crime, ultimately defeating Wilson Fisk and claiming the title of "Kingpin of Hell's Kitchen", preventing any crime from being committed in the area, although Matt's own mental state was rapidly going downhill after the death of his true love, his lies to the public, and assuming the alias of his greatest enemy. During this time frame, Matt was briefly invited to join the New Avengers when he aided them in the latest attempted break-out from the Raft, but refused the offer because he didn't want to affect their reputations in the public eye, although he did suggest Maya as a replacement member. Imprisonment and Impostor Matt was eventually captured by the FBI and sent to prison for his actions. Foggy Nelson was believed to have been killed and a Daredevil impostor was sighted. Matt learned that the Kingpin, Bullseye, and the Punisher were also serving time. An attempt at a breakout was made by Black Tarantula. Matt was able to stop Fisk and Bullseye and saved the warden. He and Punisher then escaped. The impostor was confronted, revealing himself as Iron Fist and that he had been hired to do so. The two and Ben Urich searched for information. The employer seemed to be an injured but very much alive Foggy Nelson. Vanessa Fisk's Plan Daredevil then set out to Europe to trace the figure who had had Foggy killed and employed a fake Daredevil. Much to his surprise, this was the Kingpin's wife Vanessa Fisk, who was dying after she killed her son and wanted revenge on Daredevil, who, along with Kingpin, she blamed for her situation. She offered to solve his secret identity problems once and for all if Matt would corrupt himself by fighting as a lawyer to free Kingpin from prison. Matt refused, but Vanessa had already set her plan in motion, having the FBI director who imprisoned Daredevil killed, leaving a suicide note saying he had framed Matt. Matt was able to return to his life in New York City, reunited with Foggy and Milla. Matt decided to honor Vanessa's last wish out of respect for the person she used to be before the Kingpin's influence corrupted her and had the charges against the Kingpin revoked, although he lost his U.S. citizenship and left the country. Vanessa died of her terminal illness, with Matt drawing out the trial so that Fisk couldn't attend the funeral as another act of revenge. Hell to Pay With the charges against him for being Daredevil cleared, Matt decided to move his office to a new location due to constant threats from his enemies and resumed his life as a lawyer with Foggy and Becky Blake, their law firm no longer listed in the phone book and only taking referrals to help avoid being easily located. Matt also moved to a different apartment as well. Disaster struck when he went up against the new crime boss the Hood. Mister Fear, who was working with him at the time, poisoned Milla with a psychedelic drug which he did with the help of Lily Lucca, a young woman in love with Matt whom he met while in Europe. This put Milla into a mental institution with Matt accepting the fact that he ruined Milla's life when Mr. Fear told him there was no cure for her. Out of grief for what happened, Murdock accidentally had sex with Dakota North while drunk and recently he went up against Lady Bullseye and the Hand, where in her civilian disguise as a Lawyer, Lady Bullseye showed the pictures of Matt and Dakota together to Milla's parents, resulting in them being granted full custody of their daughter. Regretting that he had betrayed his wife Matt decided to sign for divorce. The Devil's Hand A drunken, blind and immortal sensei Master Izo targeted Murdock in his war against the Hand - and Murdock was forced to team up with his old enemy, the Kingpin, to take the Hand down. However, the price that was paid for this, is that this agreement combined with his ever-growing irrational behavior resulted in Foggy firing Matt from the firm when he found out about the arrangement. The Kingpin attempted to betray him, but Murdock beat him and his assassin, Lady Bullseye, and seized control of the Hand, with Izo's help on the condition that they are to never be involved with either Lady Bullseye or the Kingpin again. Lady Bullseye, sent by the Kingpin, killed two associates of Norman Osborn, H.A.M.M.E.R. director and leader of the superhuman community. Enraged, Osborn sent his assassin, Hawkeye (the original Bullseye), to kill Daredevil, whom he suspected was responsible for the kill. Bullseye lured Daredevil to a trap, detonating a bomb in an apartment building full of families that were holding out against an OsCorp development site. Pushed to the brink by Osborn and Bullseye's acts, Daredevil rallied his associates in the Hand to "send a message" - and take back the streets of New York from Osborn's corruption. He then traveled to Japan to unite the five warlords of the Hand while a splinter group worked to corrupt his soul. Murdock returned to New York City and built a large fortress over the spot where Bullseye destroyed the apartment building and called it Shadowland. Shadowland When Daredevil erected his fortress, it began to unsettle some of the heroes, like the Avengers. Bullseye entered the fortress and challenged Murdock to a battle. Murdock arrived dressed in a new black Daredevil costume and ordered a group of ninjas to attack. Bullseye defeated all of these ninjas, but soon faced Murdock himself. Murdock brutally broke both his arms and then used a sai to stab Bullseye through the chest, effectively killing him. Although Daredevil was possessed by the Beast due to the actions of the Snakeroot, it is unclear whether Bullseye's murder was an action of Daredevil's own will. After the final battle- where he was cured of the Beast thanks to Iron Fist striking him with a 'chi punch' that healed the spiritual damage the Beast had caused to his soul-, Matt left New York on a journey to mentally re-train himself that would place him back on the right path by rediscovering himself, while Black Panther took over his role as the protector of Hell's Kitchen. Daredevil: Reborn Following the events of Shadowland, Matt wandered in New Mexico to escape his life as a hero, feeling that he had never accomplished anything of worth save for getting his friends hurt, but despite his best effort to stay out of heroics, he ended up getting involved in a corrupt police force operating in a small New Mexico town, saving its residents in the process and defeating a local drug lord named Calavera whom the cops were working for. Though Calavera possessed mysterious telepathic abilities which exploited Murdock's fears of his past mistakes, this ordeal left him reassured in himself, his abilities and his duties as Daredevil, allowing him to face his actions during the Shadowland and reaffirm his status as the 'Man Without Fear' as he defeated Calavera. Matt since then had made his way back to New York City to rebuild both his superhero and legal careers. Restarting his career Moving his law office to Hamilton Heights, Matt Murdock officially made his returned as Daredevil by foiling the kidnapping of a young girl at a Mafia Wedding by the Spot. However in the first case since his return, Matt's presence compromised the case of defending a Muslim named Ahmed Jobrani who is the owner of a small electronics store in a case of police brutality, but it also turns into a media circus due to the past allegations of Matt being Daredevil. Also, because of his pasts allegations of being Daredevil, Matt was forced to change Nelson and Murdock's business strategy, where he and Foggy would have to teach their clients how to represent themselves in court as consultants. New Avengers In his next mission involving a wrongful termination case, Daredevil discovered that it had to do with several terrorist organizations whose data was stored electronically in a device called the Omegadrive that was created with the use of the Unstable Molecules in a piece of the Fantastic Four's costume that was recovered from one of their battles. Despite having been beaten by the Bruiser earlier and in no position to fight, Daredevil talks his way out of it by stating to each group's representatives that one of them would have to kill each other to get the device and would end up starting a gang war, which wouldn't happen if Daredevil was allowed to leave and take all the blame for what happened and make himself a target instead. Later shortly after he officially joined the New Avengers, Daredevil assisted Spider-Man when Black Cat was framed with the theft of a Wi-Fi Holographic Projector and recovered the device from the hands of Black Spectre's gang. In the end he received a passionate exchange from Felicia as a reward. Although this relationship was a plot by Black Spectre to use the Black Cat to get the Omega drive back, Felicia left Matt a note warning him about what was happening before going into hiding. Using the Omegadrive, Daredevil was able to expose Black Spectre leading to their take down as a warning. Teaming with Spider-Man and Punisher, Daredevil took down the crime syndicates, and then with his friends in the New Avengers tricked them into thinking Black Spectre was still active and took the Omegadrive only to be abducted by Latverian forces loyal to Doctor Doom. Upon escape, Foggy begun to questions Matt's sanity, ultimately leading to a fallout between the two. They reconciled once the truth was discovered, but Matt later learned that part of Foggy's stress had been due to the fact that he possibly had cancer, which was later confirmed. Later as Daredevil, Matt was facing against individuals that were being given his powers, he discovered the one responsible for a number of these recent attacks against him was his old enemy Bullseye, who had survived Shadowland, but his injuries had cost him all of his senses except his eyesight. Eventually after the following fight, the container that Bullseye was in was knocked into a vat of toxic waste, costing him his eyesight as well. Return to San Francisco Later on, Nelson and Murdock collapsed after it was exposed for what it had done in the past, and Daredevil's identity was again made publicly known, though this time it was intentional. Now unable to practice law in New York State anymore, Daredevil reluctantly left Hell's Kitchen and moved back to San Francisco, but not before confessing his feelings to Kirsten McDuffie. Before going, both he and Foggy were attacked by the Leap-Frog. By making it look as if Foggy had died heroically by preventing an explosion from going on the streets, Foggy could now go under the radar. During his time in San Francisco, Matt decided to ditch the alter-ego of Daredevil, fully merging his two lives for the best. He also encountered Jubula Pride, the daughter of the Owl, in order to find the latter, who had surfaced in the city, but vanished somehow. The search for the Owl ended in Alcatraz, where he was found being inhumanly used by the vigilante the Shroud to power a surveillance super-computer to find his ex-girlfriend, Julia Carpenter. Matt's interference prompted the Shroud to broadcast malefic footage of his personal and professional life. In an attempt to salvage his reputation, Matt turned to the Kingpin with an offer to protect Foggy and Kirsten for the price of his total liberty, and to become Kingpin's pawn. However, Kingpin double-crossed Murdock, kidnapping Kirsten, Foggy and Julia Carpenter, and forcing Matt into a death match with the assassin Ikari. In the middle of the fight, which transpired away from Fisk, the Shroud intervened and killed Ikari. Matt took Ikari's costume, and distracted Kingpin long enough to let the Shroud and Jubula trick the Owl into using the surveillance system to bring to light all of Fisk's operations, and ruin his criminal career. The arrival of the police to capture Fisk allowed Matt to rescue all of the three hostages and put an end to the villain. In the aftermath, Matt managed to clear his name, and become reconciled with the different aspects of his life. Back in Hell's Kitchen The drawbacks of Matt intertwining his personal life with his vigilante career became apparent soon afterwards. Matt had to stop practicing law due to Daredevil casting a shadow on his every action. After fending off an attack from Typhoid Mary in the privacy of their home, Matt and Kirsten moved back to New York City for a while. Unfortunately, Matt's deal for an autobiography jeopardized his reputation as a vigilante, with people believing he tracked down criminals to pad his book. thumb|right|Daredevil's black costume When Matt and Kirsten returned to San Francisco, they came across two of the Purple Children fleeing from a mob controlled by their father, the Purple Man. Daredevil saved them and tracked down their father, who had created a device to enhance his powers to a global scale, using his children as batteries. Once Daredevil stopped Killgrave and freed the Purple Children, they decided to return the favor by employing their father's machine to hypnotically alter the memories of everyone in the world, erasing the knowledge that Daredevil and Matt Murdock were the same person. Foggy Nelson became Matt's only confidant after re-learning his secret identity shortly afterwards. For Kirsten's own safety, Matt broke up with her without telling her the truth, and he returned to Hell's Kitchen, where the removal of the knowledge of his secret identity allowed Matt to be reinstated as a New York attorney. Living there again, Matt presently worked as an assistant district attorney, serving as a prosecuting attorney instead of a defense attorney. He also started mentoring a young inexperienced vigilante named Blindspot. Matt decided to take advantage of his identity's secrecy having returned, and set out to use his abilities and powers to find a way to integrate vigilantes and superheroes into the legal system. To this end, Matt first helped foil a plan of a group of terrorists named the Munition Militia, and then managed to testified in court as Daredevil without revealing his identity. This victory set a precedent to pave the way for legitimizing superheroes' involvement in the legal process. Wilson Fisk attempted to stop Murdock, pulling the strings behind expert lawyer Legal to issue an appeal. The legal battle took Matt to the Supreme Court of the United States, where he won the case, which effectively made legal the participation of superheroes with secret identities in the courtroom. Personality Daredevil is a morally righteous hero with a strong sense of law and justice. This has also influenced him into becoming a lawyer. Daredevil objects to total violence and prefers to keep his enemies alive and defeating them rather then slay them. However, Daredevil does have a dark side, and will not hesitate to badly hurt foes in certain circumstances, often when he is under a period of stress. Matt suffers from severe clinical depression, which has led him to indulge himself in self-destructive tendencies. | Powers = Superhuman Sensory System: Originally coming from his exposure to a radioactive isotope, Murdock did not know how to handle his powers until he met Stick, who became Matt's mentor and taught him to control and enhance them. A testament to the level of skill it requires Matt to even function would be seen when he fought Psylocke during the war between the Avengers and the X-Men, as she was overwhelmed when she tried to read his mind and found herself experiencing all the information he received through his superhuman senses, demonstrating the scale of psychological training required for Murdock to operate on a normal human level. Nick Fury's intel classified him as power level 7. *'Superhuman Touch': Murdock's sense of touch is so acute that his finger can feel the faint impressions of ink on a printed page, allowing him to read by touch, though laminated pages prevent him from touching and thus reading the ink impressions at a much faster pace than a normal person would be able to read. The rest of his skin is equally sensitive, enabling him, by concentration, to feel minute temperature and pressure changes in the atmosphere around him. Even with his senses of smell and hearing blocked, he can feel the presence of a person standing five feet away from him simply by his or her body heat and disturbance of air. A side effect of his sense of touch is Murdock's ability to manipulate his muscles and internal organs. The sense of touch is not just external, but internal too (central nervous system), thereby giving him the ability to have total body control, increasing his strength and reflexes to peak human levels, increasing his agility to enhanced human levels, and also giving him the ability to numb himself to pain. *'Peak Human Strength:' Thanks to his control over his central nervous system due to his many years of martial arts training, Matt can increase his strength to peak human level. He is strong enough to tip over a limo without straining, causally pick a man up and throw him, easily break a man's leg and rupture skin with a single kick, and lift Foggy's weights up easily with one hand. He has also shown the strength to use a mailbox as a weapon. He is able to hurt Hyde, who is capable of easily lifting vans, and throw his baton with enough force to break concrete. *'Peak Human Speed:' Similar to his strength, Matt can increase his speed to peak human level. He is capable of sprinting two city blocks in seconds, disappearing, hitting a sniper with his billy club, and crosses a large distance while getting into costume in seconds. Matt's running speed is also possibly far above an Olympic-level athlete's speed, such as a track and field sprinter/decathlete. *'Superhuman Reflexes:' Possibly due to his exposure to the radioactive waste that caused his blindness, Matt's reflexes are enhanced to the degree where he is quick enough to catch a sai thrown by Bullseye, can easily dodge point blank gunfire. *'Superhuman Agility:' Matt's agility is similarly enhanced. Even while injured, he could still deflect sniper bullets that Spider-Man could not. *'Enhanced Stamina:' Matt's stamina is similarly enhanced, since he was able to hold his breath underwater for over 7 minutes. At peak capacity, he can physically exert himself for several hours before showing any signs of fatigue. *'Enhanced Endurance:' Matt has an extremely high tolerance to pain. He has survived being knocked around in a car by Nitro, survived after slowing himself down during a multi-story fall and being hit by a car. He kept fighting after being immolated by Typhoid Mary while the same attack severely hurt Jessica Jones, who has superhuman durability. On one occasion, he was able to continue functioning for five days without any sleep, and on another he continued to function despite having suffered a gunshot through both his hands that also grazed his head. *'Superhuman Smell': Murdock's sense of smell is so acute that he can distinguish between identical twins at twenty feet by minute differences in smell. He can detect odors of an atmospheric concentration of thirty parts per million. Furthermore, his ability to remember smells enables him to identify any person he has spent at least five minutes with by smell alone, no matter how he or she might try to camouflage his or her natural body odor. His powers of concentration are such that he can focus upon a single person's smell and follow it through a crowd of people at a distance of fifty feet. *'Enhanced Tracking:' Matt can track others down easily via various means, ranging from scents to footprints. With enough experience, he can follow tracks that are days or even weeks old. He may hypothetically be able to reconstruct a prior event by sniffing around the area. *'Illusion Awareness:' Due to most illusions affecting mainly eyesight, other senses such as hearing and/or smell have a difficult time not succumbing to the illusion. It is also made worse by ignoring use of their other senses. Matt's superhuman senses enable him to remain aware at all times of the true reality around him, potentially seeing through any optical and/or mental illusions that others attempt to deceive him with. *'Blindsight:' This power allows Matt to act, fight, and navigate while blind, in darkness, or otherwise sightless. *'Superhuman Hearing:' Murdock's sense of hearing enables him to detect an acoustic pressure change of one decibel at a pressure level of seven decibels (whereas the lowest threshold for average human hearing is twenty decibels.) He can hear a person's heartbeat at a distance of over twenty feet, or people whispering on the other side of a standard soundproofed wall. Through practice, Murdock is able to control his hearing acuity, mentally blocking out specific sounds like his own breathing and heartbeat, all ambient sounds to a normal human level of perception, or all sounds but a particular sound he is concentrating upon. Matt also utilizes his superhuman sense of hearing as an aid in processing, filtering, and interpreting the feedback of his radar/sonar sense to actually give him a three-dimensional picture of his surroundings. Additionally, Matt's combined use of his super hearing and radar sense can also give him tactical advantages, such as awareness of people hiding around the corners of rooms, walls, buildings, and furniture and makes it virtually impossible to literally blindside Matt. *''Lie Detection:'' By listening, feeling, and smelling, Murdock can tell whether a person is lying by sweat, changes in body temperature, and heartbeats (though he can be fooled by a pacemaker and those able to keep calm under pressure.) *''Sonar Sense:'' Very much like his radar sense, Matt can emit sonar waves, that are actually "echoes" that bounce off objects in his surrounding environment, and listen to the echoes that return from various objects near him, and use these echoes to locate and identify the objects. Alternately, he can use ambient sounds do the same. Since this ability isn't based on sight/light, invisibility is useless against him, as are most forms of camouflage. *'Superhuman Taste:' Murdock's sense of taste enables him to detect the number of grains of salt on a pretzel. His ability to remember tastes enables him to determine every ingredient of a food or drink he tastes, as long as there are at least twenty milligrams of that substance present. *'Superhuman Balance:' It is a common misconception that balance isn't a sense, but Murdock's balance centers give him equilibrium nearly on par with Spider-Man's. *'Telepathy:' Due to Stick's training, Murdock has displayed minor telepathic abilities. *'Telepathic Immunity:' He is also skilled in being able to resist psychic intrusions to be able to prevent his mind from being read. *'Radar Sense:' A form of echolocation via low radio wave projection, according to one theory; an energy wave within certain portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The signal emanates radio waves from regions of his brain, after which it travels outward, bounces off objects around him, and returns to receiving regions of his brain. With this ability, Murdock can synthesize a very close analogue of three-dimensional three hundred and sixty degree human sight. *'Proximity Sense:' An offshoot to radar sense, this ability is the combination of all other senses (excluding radar sense) and can allow Matt to reconstruct his surroundings. *'Person Identification:' All of Murdock's senses help him identify people by the specific patterns of their heartbeat, smell, touch, sound, and even radar appearance, as it allows to "see" through objects, specifically clothes (though albeit obscure). }} | Abilities = The Man Without Fear: It is untrue that Matt has never been afraid but through the years of training and experience, Daredevil currently shows a detached ability to fear and emotions bordering on sociopathic. This ability extends to immunity from "fear toxins" and spells, as Daredevil seems to simply be "The Man Without Fear." Master Attorney: Murdock is a highly skilled and accomplished lawyer, specializing in criminal justice. His legal practice is considered the single greatest source of strength of both emotional stability and his successful war on crime. Murdock's law firm also does a lot of pro bono work as well as the full range of social justice issues such as rape cases, hate crimes, police brutality, wrongful death suits, medical malpractice, whistle blower/witness protection cases, workplace violence, corporate business fraud, LGBT harassment/workplace inequality, child/sexual abuse cases, victims of war crimes/terrorism, food/consumer safety cases, automotive recalls, anti-GMO food lobbying, and even environmental issues. In law school, Murdock also had a very particular focus in U.S. Constitutional Law. Devout Catholic: As a devout Roman Catholic, Murdock has the mixed benefits and access to certain resources and contacts/allies through the Catholic parishes of Hell's Kitchen (modern day Clinton). As a lawyer, Murdock can also access additional assets in the form of safe-houses and sanctuary of the Church for his clients should local law enforcement resources become either compromised and or cannot be relied upon in witness protection cases. Murdock can also make use of contacts in the form of the Catholic clergy giving him vital information regarding the movements of street gangs, the various mafia of the NYC area, pimps, and other elements of the criminal underworld in order to allow Matt to be more successful in battling the criminals of Hell's Kitchen. Peak Human Conditions: Through many years of intensive training in multiple physical and mental disciplines, Matt's body and mind is at the peak of a man of his age, height, and weight. Master Interrogator: Murdock uses many different interrogation methods to extract information from criminals. His knowledge of criminology and torture is unerring and often overwhelming. Gifted Intellect: Murdock's intelligence and brain functions have always been apparent; long before he was affected by radiation, his longterm midnight training, A+ morning schooling and little need of sleep is a testament to that. Indomitable Will: Daredevil never gives up, he has strong will power, powerful sprit, unstoppable determiaton, he will not kill or give up, no matter what and he is fearless. Master Detective: He has shown to be an expert self-taught detective, using his intellect to figure out complex problems and hyper-senses to find clues and evidence to crime scenes. Master Tracker: With the aid of his hyper-senses, Murdock is able to track objects and people from miles away with ease. Master Acrobat: He is a superb athlete, gymnast, acrobat, aerialist and almost without peer due to the many years of constant training and exercise, first on his own and later exclusively under the tutelage of Stick. Only a very small handful of other fellow superhero martial artists within the Marvel Universe, such as Elektra, Psylocke, Black Panther, Captain America, Iron Fist, Spider-Man and Shang-Chi, can possibly match him in acrobatics. Weapons Proficiency: Murdock is highly proficient in wielding various martial art weapons through his ninjutsu training, such as swords (katana), chain weapons, stick and staff weapons, combat knives of all types, both ancient and modern military style, and projectiles such as shurikens, throwing knives, bows, and even firearms. Master Marksman: He is very skilled marksman, which makes him capable of throwing his billy clubs with great accuracy. Murdock is also skilled with most projectile-like weaponry such as throwing knives, shurikens, and darts, as well as archery, and has been shown utilizing military-grade weaponry such as sniper rifles in extreme situations. Master Stick Fighter: He is a masterful expert in wielding all types of stick weapons which include staffs, batons, nunchaku, and paired short sticks. Master Martial Artist: Murdock is a highly skilled, self-taught boxer both due to watching his father compete and helping him train and prepare for his fights. He has also been very heavily and extensively trained in the ninja arts by Stick, a senior grandmaster and leader of the secret order of the Chaste. Nick Fury, former director of S.H.I.E.L.D, commented that there are only a handful of individuals that know what Matt Murdock knows, referring to the Chaste. Stick taught and trained Matt both control of his powers and valuable fighting techniques with stealth, vanishing, to even life-energy(chi/ki)control. Murdock is well-educated in the functioning of the human body as well as martial arts techniques that target pressure points, enabling him to paralyze limbs or an individual's entire body altogether. He has disabled eyesight and speech, induced pain, and could possibly know a pressure point for inducing death. Murdock's fighting style is a very balanced and harmonious fusion of Boxing with Ninjutsu, Jui-jitsu, Aiki-Jujutsu, Savate, Kung Fu, Judo, Krav Maga, Silat, Karate, Capoeira, Eskrima, Aikido, and Greco-Roman Wrestling. His skills have proven so exceptional that he has been able to easily defeat or stalemate some of the greatest fighters on Earth. Matt is easily one of the greatest martial artists in the Marvel Universe. Matt's martial skills are at a point where he was ranked by Stick as at least tenth degree black belt in ninjutsu, seeing as that was the art that Matt seems to have been trained in almost exclusively by Stick. He has fought highly trained and most skilled opponents such as Black Panther, Taskmaster, Iron Fist, Karnak, Captain America, Sabretooth, Winter Soldier, Deadpool, and Wolverine to standstills, even impaling Wolverine with a sword while the mutant was in a feral state due to brainwashing by Hydra. | Strength = For a "normal" human, Matt has demonstrated remarkable physical strength. Daredevil is an Olympic-level weightlifter who possesses the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build exercise that does his warm-up intensively and regularly. Matt has demonstrated that he can lift and handle a 400 lb. barbell as though it were fifty pounds. At peak capacity, he is able to reach up to 800 lbs when necessary, which gives him the ability to break a strong brick wall with a single punch, and also break a metal door with a single kick. He has overturned a limo full of people, and has picked up and used a mail drop-box as a blunt instrument. He has also once broke a shotgun over his knee. At his sustained limit, Daredevil possesses sufficient strength to press lift approximately 450 lbs. | Weaknesses = Blindness: Daredevil is blind. While his superhuman senses help him overcome this, it becomes a problem for him to navigate and fight when his heightened senses are overwhelmed, scrambled, or otherwise cannot detect anything. *'Sense Precision': Daredevil's extent to discern pictures or video images are limited, and he can only guess at colors based on the amount of heat they are absorbing or reflecting. If nothing is being emitted (by a person or thing) that would trigger his heightened senses, Daredevil would not be able to detect it, such as when a sniper bullet fired outside the range of his sense of hearing was able to badly injure him. *'Superhuman Sense Disruption': Daredevil's superhuman senses render him extraordinarily vulnerable to odors and/or excessive noise, which can temporarily weaken his radar sense. Under extreme circumstances he can be easily immobilized, suffer great pain, and/or be left disorientated. Once the disruptive effects wear off, Daredevil's radar sense is able to return to its normal calibration. Radar Sense Disruption: Though uncommon, in unique situations where multiple objects, sounds, temperatures, and smells are in close proximity, Daredevil's radar has been known to fail, leaving him to rely on his other senses. Vurnerabilty to Superhuman Speed: people with superhuman speed, such as Spider-Man and The Owl are too fast to be "seen" by the radar sense which means Daredevil become vurnerable to attack Immersed In Water: While being in a large body of water, his radar sense is rendered useless. He loses several senses while in the water and has a hard time telling which direction sound is coming from. Non-Superhuman Physical Conditioning: As Daredevil's powers do not give him any kind of superhuman physical ability, Daredevil is as susceptible to physical injury and disease as any other normal human, often having to rely more on strategy than strength when up against a superhuman opponent. | Equipment = * Daredevil's Suit: Daredevil has used four costumes in the course of his career as a crime fighter: his original yellow-and-black costume, his modern red costume, a black-and-red armored costume that was used temporarily, and a newer black-and-red costume which was used during the Shadowland saga. When Murdock experienced a psychological break, each of his first three costumes came to be focuses for three distinct separate, distinct personalities within Murdock. Since that time, Murdock has resolved his psychological problems, and now exclusively uses the red costume. The horns on his costume are antennae that can pick up radio waves, allowing him to tap into police scanners everywhere. Matt's current suit is also fully bulletproof, fireproof, and fully insulated from electrical attacks. While possessed by the Beast, the horns on his costume were transformed into larger devil horns when it fully awakened, and were reverted back to normal when the Beast was removed from Matt Murdock's body. | Transportation = * Daredevil usually travels by foot across city rooftops with the grappling hook and cable in his billy club. | Weapons = * Matt currently wields a multi-purpose cane that has many different modes. Its initial form is two short sticks held together by an extendable cable. It can be configured into a nunchaku-like weapon to a manriki-gusari (a long rope/chain weapon with two weights on its ends), dual short sticks which can be wielded in a pair, staff, or a cable with a grappling hook. The weapon can also be adjusted to combine both sticks into a larger stick. The weapon is held by a holster on the side of Matt's left leg. * Billy Club: Daredevil's billy club is a multi-purpose weapon. It has a retractable microphone, a miniature tape recorder, chamber for firing projectiles, and a wire cable which allows the club to be used as a grappling hook. It can also be used as either as a baton or a cable. * He wore wrist blades on his arms during his time in the Hand, but he no longer uses them. | Notes = *Matthew Murdock has commented that he feels himself suffocating while wearing business suits. He considers Daredevil's Suit to be his actual working clothes. He started realizing that Daredevil is a larger part of his identity. As if Daredevil was the real identity and Matthew Murdock just an acting role. *Daredevil used to play three different roles in his daily life: "conservative" Matt Murdock, dazzling Daredevil, and carefree Mike Murdock. He considered himself a method actor and mused that he could eventually open his own school of method acting. | Trivia = *Daredevil once mused that his life may merit an adaptation to stage or film. He had an actor in mind for the role, Alec Guinness (1914–2000). * Murdock's favorite spot in the city is the top of the Chrysler Building. * The Mad Thinker believes Murdock is left-handed. However, he writes with his right hand. * Daredevil was portrayed by Ben Affleck in live-action in the (2003) motion picture Daredevil and by Charlie Cox in the (2015) Netflix series Marvel's Daredevil. * Daredevil was ranked 10th on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes in 2011. * In 1984, the origin story of Daredevil involving a boy saving an old man from being run over by a truck and the radioactive isotope would serve as the inspiration for the origin story of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the mutagen that would mutate them in their original Mirage Comics appearance and the later comics and media adaptions as well.The fascinating origin story of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles * Matt Murdock suffers from depression. * Murdock can play the piano. | Links = * Daredevil article at Wikipedia * DD Resource * Daredevil screenplay (unproduced) * Official webpage at Marvel.com * Daredevil bio at MarvelDirectory * Man Without Fear fan site * The religion of Matt Murdock, Daredevil * "Secrets, lies - and lawyers!", Douglas Wolk, Salon.com, January 5, 2006. Retrospective of the Bendis/Maleev run. }} pl:Matthew Murdock (Ziemia-616) ru:Мэттью Мердок (616) Category:Captain Universe Category:Lawyers Category:Blind Characters Category:Catholic Characters Category:Superhuman Senses Category:Radar Sense Category:Hypergeusia Category:Hyperosmia Category:Hyperacusia Category:Hyperesthesia Category:Sonic Weakness Category:Vigilantes Category:Murdock Family Category:Gymnasts Category:Weapons Expert Category:Martial Arts Category:Power Level 7 Category:Chi Manipulation Category:Matthew Murdock (Earth-616)/Quotes Category:Depression Category:Columbia University Student Category:Acrobats Category:Athletic skills Category:Silver-Age Characters Category:Sold their soul to Mephisto Category:Telepathic Immunity Category:Multilingual Category:Trackers Category:Harvard University Student Category:Consciousness Transferred